At WP Spotlight, we’re driven by the belief that tools should adapt to their users, not the other way around.
One of our most insightful collaborations came through working with Jingu Youn, a project manager at ONENONE—a WordPress agency dealing with a huge client base.
Jingu was one of our many users who used WP Spotlight to its greatest potential.
Jingu’s experience with WP Spotlight not only transformed his day-to-day tasks but also helped us refine and expand the product.
Understanding ONENONE’s Workflow Challenge
ONENONE, a prominent WordPress agency, faced several challenges common to agencies managing multiple client sites and diverse projects.
Under Jingu Youn’s leadership, the agency managed an impressive range of websites, including eCommerce stores, blogs, and multisite networks for enterprise clients.
Each of these presented unique hurdles, from content management to plugin maintenance.
After much discussion, we came to these few common problems that needed solutions in place.
Time-Consuming Post and Media Searches
With a high volume of posts, pages, and media assets across multiple client sites, locating specific content became a time-consuming and laborious task for Jingu and his team. Whether it was pulling up a draft blog post for edits or finding a product page buried in WooCommerce, significant time was wasted navigating WordPress’s default interface.
Managing WooCommerce Workflows
ONENONE worked with numerous eCommerce clients using WooCommerce. While managing orders was straightforward, the need for quick access to specific orders, customer details, or products directly from the WordPress dashboard became evident. WordPress’s basic search simply was not powerful enough and a custom-made solutions as needed.
Handling Multisite Networks
For their enterprise clients, ONENONE maintained multisite WordPress networks. Jumping between subsites to manage updates, plugins, and themes was not only time consuming but also prone to mistakes occurring regularly. Jingu noted that the complexity of multisite management was compounded by the need for real-time insights into each subsite’s health and updates.
Plugin and Update Management
ONENONE relied on various plugins for functionality, but managing their updates across sites was a challenge. The risk of outdated plugins causing security vulnerabilities or compatibility issues was always a concern. Tracking these updates and ensuring their timely application became a critical need.
Agency-Wide Efficiency
With multiple team members working on different aspects of client projects, efficiency was paramount. ONENONE required tools that could reduce repetitive tasks and eliminate unnecessary navigation. This need for streamlined workflows led Jingu to look for solutions that enhanced collaboration and productivity.
How WP Spotlight Delivered Solutions
Efficient Content Management with Advanced Post Search
For ONENONE, timely updates to client blogs, portfolios, and landing pages were critical. WP Spotlight’s Post Search allowed Jingu’s team to locate and manage posts effortlessly. The search system not only worked seamlessly with WordPress core posts but also extended to custom post types.
A highlight of Jingu’s feedback was discovering WP Spotlight’s partial compatibility with Elementor, a popular page builder.
"I was thrilled to find that WP Spotlight could locate posts created with Elementor. While it wasn’t fully optimized at the time, it proved to be a massive time-saver for locating and editing key pages." – Jingu Youn
Based on his feedback, our team prioritized enhanced Elementor support, which is now on our roadmap alongside integrations for other page builders.
Simplifying WooCommerce Operations
As an agency managing eCommerce sites, Jingu relied on WP Spotlight to speed up WooCommerce-related tasks. While using our Post Search to locate customer-specific orders, he found it also worked for WooCommerce orders—a use case we hadn’t actively tested.
"Discovering that Post Search worked with WooCommerce orders was a pleasant surprise. I could tell that it was not fully tested and it didn’t work every time but the times it worked, the speed and accuracy it had in finding orders saved us hours during the recent Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaigns." – Jingu Youn
Inspired by his feedback, we’ve already added testing scenarios for WooCommerce compatibility in future releases and are exploring deeper integrations, such as order management directly from the search bar.
For now, we’ve decided not to release it as the feature needs refinement but rest assured, we’re actively testing and building the functionality that’s needed to make it a truly helpful feature for eCommerce users. We’ll be releasing it soon.
Multisite Management Made Simple
Managing multisite WordPress networks for corporate clients has always been a time-consuming task for Jingu. WP Spotlight’s Multisite Navigation feature centralized site access and search, eliminating the need for repetitive logins.
One standout example came during a brand refresh for a client with 12 subsites. Jingu used WP Spotlight to locate, edit, and standardize branding elements across all sites in record time.
"The Multisite navigation feature really helped me speed up—it’s a necessity for agencies like ours. It saved me and my team countless hours and made managing networks feel less of a struggle." – Jingu Youn
Comprehensive Plugin and Update Management
Jingu’s team often dealt with client sites requiring regular updates and plugin management to stay secure and functional. WP Spotlight’s Plugin Management allowed him to activate, deactivate, or delete plugins directly from search without navigating through WordPress menus.
During a critical security audit, he used WP Spotlight to track outdated plugins and process updates across all client sites efficiently.
"Plugin management from the search bar is a feature I never knew I needed until I used it. I’ve gotten so used to it by now that I don’t think I can go back!" – Jingu Youn
Jingu also suggested adding plugin upload capabilities directly from search, a feature we’ve since added to our roadmap.
Enhanced Media Management
With WP Spotlight, Jingu also gained the ability to quickly search and manage media files. Whether locating specific images, videos, or documents, the tool streamlined the process for a more organized workflow.
Media tracking and updating for agencies can be quite the challenge and with WP Spotlight Jingu now had a tool to make this as effortless as possible.
Jingu especially loved using the upload directly on search feature which allowed him to directly upload media files by dragging them and dropping them on to search.
“Media management with WP Spotlight and WP Adminify is a perfect blend. Searching for and organizing media has never been this simple,” Jingu emphasized.
Collaborative Development: Insights That Shaped WP Spotlight
Jingu’s collaboration extended far beyond regular feedback. Through detailed questions and suggestions, he helped us identify new use cases and refine existing ones.
Here are just a few that helped us work out different workflows, incorporate new features and also helped us identify new use cases entirely.
Key Questions and Suggestions
1. Can WP Spotlight improve compatibility with Elementor?
Answer: While basic support was available, we outlined a roadmap for deeper Elementor integration, including the ability to locate and edit Elementor-specific widgets and templates directly from search.
2. Does Post Search support WooCommerce orders?
Answer: Jingu’s use case revealed that this feature worked, though it wasn’t actively tested. We committed to optimizing order search and ensuring future compatibility with other WooCommerce operations, like refunds or status changes.
3. Is it also possible to manage plugin uploads and updates from search?
Answer: Jingu’s suggestion led us to develop and release the current plugin, theme and update management systems on WP Spotlight. But we're also actively working to improve this even further. We're trying to create an uploader for both plugins and themes which will be similar to our media uploader which allows you to upload media directly into search with drag and drop functionality. Imagine the same feature for plugins and themes.
4. Can WP Spotlight help with inserting media directly inside posts?
Answer: This was already a planned feature for Gutenberg but thanks to Jingu’s emphasis, we’ve expanded the roadmap to include direct-into-post insertion for other page builders as well. Currently,, we have support for Elementor, Gutenberg, and Bricks.
5. Is it possible to switch user roles directly from search?
Answer: Jingu’s query highlighted the need for efficient user management, leading us to prioritize user role switching as an upcoming feature. This will allow administrators to quickly toggle roles without diving into user settings.
6. Can we have nested searches to drill down more specific results?
Answer: Nested search was an idea already in early discussions, but Jingu’s feedback provided clarity on its practical applications, such as filtering WooCommerce orders by date and customer details simultaneously. This feature is now in development.
7. Could WP Spotlight offer deep search into plugin settings?
Answer: This innovative suggestion inspired us to add a deep search for plugin sub-options to the roadmap. It aims to allow users to locate specific plugin configurations or settings directly from the Spotlight search bar. There are products on the market that provide this feature, however, they provide custom support for each plugin which is not an ideal solution when there are hundreds and thousands of plugins on the market. We aim to make this as dynamic as possible so that users can do a deep search no matter the plugin.
8. Can you give me role-based access features?
Answer: A major feature suggestion from Jingu was the introduction of role-based access controls for WP Spotlight. Given ONENONE’s multi-level team structure, Jingu needed a way to customize access based on user roles. For instance:
- Authors could access only post-type searches, helping them focus on content creation.
- Administrators could manage plugins, updates, and WooCommerce orders.
- Editors could be granted access to manage comments or media.
This granular access control would enhance security while tailoring WP Spotlight’s functionality to specific roles within the team. We're actively working on this and we're trying to release it as fast as possible.
Tangible Results for ONENONE
For Agencies such as ONENONE who deal with a huge workload at most times, time management is crucial.
They need to make sure that they’re using their time efficiently to achieve a balance and we’re happy to report that since adopting WP Spotlight, ONENONE has reported remarkable improvements in efficiency:
- 50% faster content management, particularly for custom post types.
- 30% reduction in time spent on WooCommerce operations, especially during peak sales periods.
- Significant time savings on plugin and update management, enabling the team to focus on creative work.
- The cumulative effect of having more time improved the quality of their content production.
"WP Spotlight has become an indispensable part of our workflow. It’s fast, intuitive, and continues to evolve in ways that benefit power users like us." – Jingu Youn
Final Thoughts: A Partnership for the Future
Collaborations like the one with Jingu Youn are at the heart of WP Spotlight’s development. We’ve talked to multiple customers over the years while we tested our features and the usability of these features.
His insights helped us identify and prioritize features that agencies need, ensuring WP Spotlight remains a robust tool for managing WordPress sites efficiently.
"At first glance, WP Spotlight may come off as more a luxury than a necessity but it is after you use it that you realize its true value. It’s must-have tool for any WordPress user no matter the workload." – Jingu Youn
Jingu Youn is one of many such customers who have actively used WP Spotlight in new and innovative ways to extract more value from their WordPress workflows.
We’re proud to have contributed to ONENONE’s success and look forward to continuing to innovate for agencies and power users around the world.
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